Identity Thief reclaims US top spot ahead of Snitch

The film took $14.1 million to bring its US total to $93.7 million in just three weeks of release.

It lost top spot to A Good Day To Die Hard last weekend but that film, which saw Bruce Willis reprising his role of Detective John McClane for a fifth adventure set in Russia, tumbled to fifth with $10 million.

Snitch, the Dwayne Johnson star vehicle that sees him playing a father who agrees to become an undercover informant and infiltrate a drug cartel after his son is wrongly charged with drug distribution, landed second spot with $13 million.

It is directed by Ric Roman Waugh and also stars Susan Sarandon, Benjamin Bratt and Barry Pepper.

In third spot was animated movie Escape From Planet Earth, which moved up the chart in its second weekend, grossing $11 million, while fourth spot belonged to Nicholas Sparks romantic drama Safe Haven, which took $10.6 million.

Micro budget horror Dark Skies, which features Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton as a couple trying to save their children from an alien presence, came sixth with $8.9 million, having cost only $3.5 million to make.

Overall, however, the US box office suffered a relatively soft weekend ahead of Sunday’s Oscars ceremony.